Downtown Akron to lose the Farmer's Market?

Akron's downtown farmer's market is moving to Stan Hywet as reported on Feb 1st in the Akron Beacon Journal. According to the report, they want to move where people live. People don't live downtown. Well some do, but not the kind that can afford heirloom vegetables and organic cheese.

The city is vowing to put together some kind of farmer's market downtown. The original idea was to provide fresh produce for downtown workers to purchase on their way home from work. The market used to be at Cascade plaza from mid morning to mid afternoon -- two days a week, as I remember. The farmers who showed up were definitely not the trendy type. But the corn was fresh and the tomatoes juicy, and there's nothing like a big pile of freshly picked green beans.

The city moved it to Lock 3 on Saturday mornings for one summer. That was a very inconvenient time for me and I only made it down there once. I liked it best when it was across from the Beacon Journal on the east side along the old loading docks. It was easy to park and get into it there, and I enjoyed the stroll up and back along all the stalls.

Urban dwellers deserve the opportunity to shop for locally farmed produce. There really are people who live downtown, many of them live diminished lives in the old Mayflower Hotel and the odd rooming houses that still rent rooms by the month. All of these neglected citizens would surely benefit from having fresh food rather than the over-processed and excessively-packaged food stuffs they obtain from the Aldi Store long blocks away on South Main St.

There are no grocery stores within walking distance from downtown Akron. The elderly residents and the mentally and physically handicapped must take a bus ride to get to their food sources. Let us hope the farmer's market down town can continue in some form. And again I say, it is too bad we can't have something that goes all year long, like Cleveland's West Side Market.

I took the above photo at the West Side Market last December.